"Common Sense (1776) Addressed to Today’s Citizens of America: An Erasure" Poetry Talk

POETRY AS RESISTANCE

City Lights and Beacon Press celebrate the publication of

"Common Sense (1776) Addressed to Today’s Citizens of America: An Erasure"

A new poetic work that calls out the contradictions in one of the foundational texts of American democracy.

BOOK TALK: Poet & author, Crystal Simone Smith, in conversation with Tongo Eisen-Martin

Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 7:00 pm PT

Come to store to join in-person, or RSVP at Eventbrite for a Zoom link to join online


A revolutionary work of erasure poetry that exposes the contradictions in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense—calling for a new definition of citizenship that embraces all Americans

In his famous cry for inhabitants of the 13 colonies to seek independence from Britain, Thomas Paine claims to call for total freedom and equality, yet his arguments are directed only at white men, excluding women and people of color.

Crystal Simone Smith, known for writing poetry about the human condition and social change, offers a new poetic work that calls out the contradictions in one of the foundational texts of American democracy.

Britain’s oppressive rule, while strongly criticized throughout Paine’s text, was subsequently repeated by the founding fathers who, when forming our nation, established laws that oppressed racial groups and women. Smith uses the power of redaction to revise Paine’s approach, inviting readers to critically engage with the text and reimagine it anew.

Retaining the original text as a translucent background, Smith highlights specific words and phrases to reveal new meanings that reflect not only the totality of America’s founding, but the ensuing fragile, if not failing, democracy of our present times.

Perfect for students and US history buffs alike, this highly interactive collection functions as a textual reveal of historical biases and makes a case for a new, inclusive definition of citizenship that recognizes all Americans.

Crystal Simone Smith is a poet, indie-publisher, and educator. She is the author of Dark Testament (Henry Holt, 2023)and the author of 3 poetry chapbooks. In 2019, she won the North Carolina Poetry Society Bloodroot Haiku Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Prairie Schooner, POETRY Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. Her latest book, RUNAGATE: SONGS OF FREEDOM BOUND, a collection of Japanese forms of poetry written in response to slave artifacts including ads for runaway slaves, will be published by Duke University Press in Spring 2025.

Tongo Eisen-Martin is the former Poet Laureate of San Francisco, California. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights Books, 2017), which was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, received the California Book Award for Poetry, an American Book Award, and a PEN Oakland Book Award. He is also the author of someone’s dead already (Bootstrap Press, 2015). Blood on the Fog, his newest collection of poems, was published as volume 62 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series in September 2021.

This event is made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.